Regulating Food Safety in the European Union and the United States: Similarities and Differences

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Associate Professor and Jean Monnet ChairCo-Director, Center for European and Transatlantic StudiesThe Sam Nunn School of International AffairsTel: +1 (404) 385 8570

The United States and the European Union are the world’s two regulatory ‘great powers’ (Drezner). Food safety is one area where their regulations frequently differ. These differences are sufficiently important that they have impeded the launching of a comprehensive transatlantic trade agreement mooted to be negotiated this year.

Carlos is a European Commission official since 1993; before joining the EU Delegation in Washington in October 2009, he worked for eleven years in the Commission's Food and Veterinary Office in Ireland where he was in charge of different inspection units. Before that he worked in Brussels from 1993 to 1998 in the Commission's division of agricultural research and prior to that in the National and Regional Administrations in Spain. In the EU Delegation, he deals mainly with issues related to Food Safety, Animal Health, Animal Welfare and Plant Health.

Carlos is a veterinarian by training (Veterinary School of Leon, Spain) and also holds master degrees in Public Administration (Complutense University of Madrid), Management in the Public Sector (Trinity College Dublin) and Public Policy and Management (University of London).